There’s a brand-new food hall in Manchester, and you won’t believe where this beauty is… it’s only at Manchester Airport (!).
The food hall craze has travelled all the way to Terminal 2, bringing a whole host of kitchens for you to enjoy before your flight.
You can tuck in to everything from full breakfasts and brunches (with the obligatory 7am pint, because time isn’t real in an airport), to burgers and street food.
Essentially, you can travel around the world before you’ve even boarded the plane.
It’s all part of the terminal’s wider £1.3bn transformation, which now includes a first-of-its-kind market hall-style food and drink offering, with six kitchens around a central dining area, plus a Gooey kiosk and a takeaway hatch.
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Behind the scenes, Great Northern Market is powered by a community of Northern talent. All menus have been crafted by Manchester-born executive chef Amy Tomkinson.
Here are all the new traders who have moved in to the Great Northern Market.
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Gooey
This one surely needs no introduction – Gooey is one of Manchester’s top (and most popular) bakeries, famed for its chunky cookies, fluffy doughnuts, and cinnamon buns.
It’s the first thing you’ll see as you enter the Great Northern Market, a pretty tiled kiosk with its signature neon sign overhead.
As well as fresh bakes and their limited-edition specials, this is the spot to grab a pre-flight coffee too.
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La Casita
This Mexican street food spot has been created with the help of Madre’s Sam Grainger, and is serving a menu of burritos, loaded nachos, and salads.
A highlight is the beef birria nachos – authentic Mexican corn tacos loaded up with refried beans, pink pickled onions, guacamole, cheese sauce, salsa norteña and jalapeños.
Nashville Hot House
There’s another local name involved with Nashville Hot House – Yard & Coop have brought their fried chicken prowess to Manchester Airport.
At the Great Northern Market, you’ll find classic buttermilk chicken burgers, a spicy little K-pop thigh burger, and chicken tenders.
There’s also salt and pepper loaded fries and absolutely loads of different dips.
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Napoli Street Pizza
There’s been a real lack of pre-holiday pizza at Manchester Airport until now.
Napoli Street Pizza makes its Neapolitan pizzas using a a 55% hydration method, and a biga dough that is fermented and used to create the dough daily.
There are loads of different flavours to choose from, like a hot honey and pepperoni, plus flatbreads, Caesar salads, and more.
Kouzina
Kouzina is importing flatbreads from Greece for the most authentic possible souvlaki experience, like a lamb kofta souvlaki with chopped tomatoes, pink pickled onions, cucumber, zhoug, tahini, garlic mayo, and coriander.
You can also order big salads here, mezze platters, halloumi fries, and flatbreads with dips.
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You’ll feel like your in Santorini before you’ve even stepped on the plane (… okay, that might be a stretch).
Black Iron Grill
Smash burgers and skin-on fries are up for grabs at this next Great Northern Market trader, Black Iron Grill.
These burgers are served in glazed brioche buns, with melt-in-your-mouth beef patties topped with a number of different options.
You can also order a side of mac and cheese or some filthy fries loaded with crispy bacon bits, crispy shallots, and garlic mayonnaise.
Palms Cafe
Last but not least – and definitely not something we thought we’d ever see in Manchester Airport – is Palms Cafe.
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They’re whipping up big bowls of ramen, and other noodle dishes, with toppings like satay chicken, sweet chilli king prawn, crispy tofu, pulled Korean beef, crispy fried chicken, and miso roasted sweet potato.
Noodles include hearty ramens, katsu curries, Pad Thai, and sides like prawn crackers.
And now the operator for the brand-new hotel has been revealed, along with new CGIs giving us a glimpse inside its doors.
The hotel will be a Hampton By Hilton, the largest of the brand’s hotels in Europe, with hundreds of modern bedrooms and sweeping city views.
Guests will have plenty of Manchester’s top attractions on the doorstep, including Manchester Central, Deansgate Square, the Science and Industry Museum, and Spinningfields.
They’ll also have a decent pub on the doorstep – the new Hampton by Hilton towers right above The Deansgate pub.
When the new hotel opens in April, it will add 358 new guest rooms to the city centre, plus a new bar and all-day dining restaurant, with hot breakfasts included with all stays (including signature Hampton Waffle makers).
New bar spaces in the hotel on DeansgateAnother angle of the new hotel’s bedroomsInside a Hampton by Hilton Deansgate bedroom
Other amenities will include a 24-hour fitness centre, and a meeting and event space for private hire.
Operators say the hotel will have interiors that will feature ‘subtle references to Manchester’s urban character and industrial heritage’, with architecture that will make ‘a strong new addition to the city’s skyline’.
Adi Hodzic, Managing Director of Dean Street Developments, said: “Manchester is a city undergoing exceptional growth, and this opening represents a major milestone for both Dean Street Developments and the wider hospitality landscape.
“Hampton by Hilton Manchester City Centre brings a contemporary, intelligently designed product to the city centre, matching the scale and ambition of the city itself.”
The new hotel will be the largest of the brand’s in EuropeThe Hampton by Hilton hotel opens on Deansgate in spring
Abi Hindle, General Manager of the hotel, added: “We’re thrilled to be opening Europe’s largest Hampton by Hilton in Manchester, a city known for its warm hospitality.
“We’re certain that the new Hampton by Hilton Manchester City Centre will be a great addition to the city’s already flourishing hospitality landscape, becoming a popular destination for tourists, business travellers, and families alike.”
Nick Smart, Vice President, Development, UK, Ireland and Nordics at Hilton, commented: “We’re proud to partner with Dean Street Developments on the opening of Europe’s largest Hampton by Hilton in Manchester, one of the UK’s most dynamic cities.
“This project underscores our ambition to expand our presence in high‑growth areas across the UK, working with trusted partners to develop world-class hotels that offer travellers fantastic stays in great destinations.”
Bookings for the new Hampton by Hilton Manchester City Centre are now open, with stays currently on sale from 30 April.
The 2026 BRIT Awards in Manchester – everything you need to know
Danny Jones
It’s nearly time: the 2026 BRIT Awards in Manchester are SO close, and we can barely contain our excitement, so much so that we’ve spent almost as much time trying to decide what we’re going to wear as we have figuring out what time we’re even setting off for Co-op Live.
Heading to the massive indoor arena and our region for the first time ever – this being the first of at least two years the awards will be spending up North – BRITs fever has well and truly gripped the city.
With murals, posters, DJ sets, live gigs and various other events popping up all over 0161, it almost feels like festival season has arrived early.
But with so much going on, it’s hard to keep track of everything, and we intend to soak up every single drop of this huge moment for us Mancs. So, from timings and travel to who’ll be performing throughout the night and more, here’s all the important details you need to know ahead of the 2026 BRIT Awards.
BRITs 2026 guide – all the key info
What time does the BRITs start at Co-op Live and on TV?
This year’s BRIT Awards will air on ITV1 and the ITVX streaming service at 8:15pm, and will also be free to watch online via their official YouTube channel for the first time ever.
It will also be the 13th year running that international viewers will be able to tune into the ceremony via the platform.
As for the pre-show festivities at Co-op Live, presenters Tyler West and Charley Marlowe will be hosting the BRITs 2026: ‘Live From The Red Carpet’ livestream, with the broadcast getting underway from 5:30pm onwards.
While an official arrival time for members of the public is yet to be fully confirmed by the venue, doors to the venue typically open at approximately 6:45pm, and as always, we would advise turning up with plenty of time to spare before the show gets going.
Who is performing at the BRITs this year?
Now, most of you already know that the likes of global pop phenomenon and Co-op Live investor himself, Harry Styles, is playing at this year’s BRITs – not to mention an extra special ‘intimate’ gig at the venue, too – as is fellow singer-songwriting superstar Olivia Dean.
That being said, they have continued to trickle out announcements of other acts joining the live music lineup for the 2026 BRITs, including names such as Wolf Alice, Mark Ronson and more.
For instance, they only just announced that popular London-born artist DJ AG will performing a special pop-up set outside Manchester Piccadilly train station on Friday, 27 February from 4-8pm; he’s also teased that some of the acts on the main bill could very well show their faces…
With all that in mind, in case one or two of them might have slipped by you, here is the full list of everyone confirmed to be performing on the night.
Who else is on the live music lineup in Manchester for BRITs Week ’26?
In case you’ve somehow missed the announcements, another big part of BRITs Week as a whole is the raft of very special intimate gigs happening not just here in Greater Manchester but across the country.
Besides the Foo Fighters announcing their own exclusive small-cap show at the O2 Ritz – with War Child UK also helping give away pairs of tickets – these nights are hosted to raise vital funds for the crucial charity that carries out work all over the world.
Teaming up with the BRIT Awards back in 2016, the pair have been generating money for the cause for over a decade now, and the names playing these War Child gigs have only gotten bigger over time.
Arguably the biggest of them all, British pop icon Robbie Williams also joined the list of performers of War Child x DHL charity gigs late on after the initial announcement, to make the comprehensive lineup of BRIT Awards performers truly unbelievable.
Find out who else is on it and which ones are happening in Manchester HERE.
What other events are happening in the city for the BRIT Awards?
Now, besides the pop-up DJ AG set we’ve already mentioned, there are literally TONNES of other bits going on in and around central Manchester to toast their Co-op Live debut.
From the likes of the partnered BRITs ‘FRINGE LAB’ taking place over at New Century Hall – a one-day musicindustry event and live showcase featuring local names like Nxdia, Chloe Slater and more – there is also an entirely FREE music festival happening at the Printworks for the very first time.
There’s also the dedicated art trail around the city, put together by Manc creatives like Stanley Chow, Kim Thompson and ‘Oskar with a K’, just to name a few.
Oh, AND you’ve got the official ‘A Microdot Design’ exhibit at Piccadilly by Brian Cannon (the man behind Oasis’ Definitely Maybe and countless other bands’ artwork) as well, which has been curated specifically for this year’s BRIT Awards.
Gosh, we really are being spoiled rotten, aren’t we?
Put simply, there’s quite a lot going on this week and even after the ceremony and afterparties have wrapped up in the early hours of Sunday morning. You can see a more extensive list right HERE.
For those of you heading to Co-op Live to watch the BRIT Awards shows in person, you’ll be glad to know it’s right next door to a rather famous big blue stadium and its integrated Metrolink stop.
Head along the light blue or orange lines directly to the Etihad Campus or Ashton-under-Lyne, and you can get off the tram literally spitting distance from the arena. You can find the full map HERE.
Trams run frequently on the Ashton-Eccles line to the Etihad stop, with services leaving every six minutes from the city centre and until 1:00am on Fridays and Saturdays. It’s also worth noting that anyone with a valid BRITs ticket is granted FREE travel from all zones travelling to and from the venue.
Bus
You can find the full list of bus routes HERE, with the one in closest proximity to the venue being the 53 bus, which runs from Cheetham Hill through to Higher Crumpsall, Old Trafford and Pendleton, leaving just a two-minute walk to Co-op Live. You also get free Bee Network travel with any valid event ticket.
If you’re driving, there is limited parking available at the venue, but this must be pre-booked ahead of time, and there are designated drop-off areas.
The postcode is M11 3DU, and you can follow the signs towards the wider Etihad Campus as you get closer; directions to the adjacent drop-off points will also be signposted.
Keep in mind that congestion on the roads close to the stadium is expected to gather around two hours prior to any event, so if you are travelling on the road, these are the suggested times they provide on event day, though estimates will obviously vary:
Alan Turing Way (both directions): plan an additional 20 minutes into any journey by road.
Hyde Road (eastbound): expect an additional 15 minutes to be added to your journey.
Mancunian Way (westbound): plan for an extra 10 minutes of travel time.
There are also three park-and-ride facilities near Co-op Live, but be advised that the Velopark and Holt Town stops will be closed post-event to help safely manage crowds:
Ashton West (Ashton line) – 184 spaces and 11 disabled spaces
Ladywell (Ashton-Eccles line) – 332 spaces and 22 disabled spaces
Walk/cycle
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Lastly, Co-op Live is only a half-hour stroll from Manchester Piccadilly, and you could even walk along the canal all the way to the front door if you fancy taking the scenic route.
Greater Manchester now also offers the option to hire bikes on the Beryl app, with riders able to locate, unlock, get to their destination and then safely lock up the bike all through an easy-to-use app. There are hire points just near the south-west corner of the Etihad Stadium on Ashton New Road.
For more information on all travel options, you can check out the enhanced journey planner.
Afterparties and ‘rumours’
Last but not least, we already know that at leastone of the official BRITs afterparties is happening at Soho House on behalf of Sony, but it’s likely that different labels, promoters, artists, and so on will be hosting others at different locations around Manchester city centre.
We do know from when Northern Quarter hosted the Chanel Métiers d’art fashion show that plenty of A-listers went out to various NQ bars and restaurants in and around the event, so we’d wager on a fair few more doing the same on event weekend – especially any famous Mancs.
Not to make you lose your minds too much, but we’ve also heard talk of some rumoured guests turning up for the ceremony itself, so who knows who you might spot walking around this weekend?
All we’ll say is that if you want to catch a glimpse of any of them, be polite and Swift about it…
1 week to go!
That’s right, move over London, it’s our turn💪
The @BRITs take place in Manchester, at the @thecooplive, next Saturday, the first time it’s moved out of London.
Daisy Jackson -
12th February 2026 
